Weekly Meanderings, 16 August 2014

Coming out can be incredibly hard for gay people to do – the fear of how family and friends will react often delays announcement for years, or even decades.

But for Vicky Beeching, the decision to tell the world she was a lesbian wasn’t just about telling her nearest and dearest, it was was also going to risk shattering her income and having her deported from the country she lived in.

For over a decade, the 35-year-old’s music has been played across America’s bible belt as a soundtrack to modern Christianity.

From the age of fourteen, the Brit had been travelling to perform the religious music she wrote at concerts and churches from her family home in Kent. …

The turning point came when she was diagnosed with an auto-immune disease called linear scleroderma morphea, aged 30, where the soft tissue in the body turns to scarring. The disease can often be linked to a point of stress – in Vicky’s case she assumed it was her hidden sexuality.

While undergoing severe hospital treatments including chemotherapy, she decided to set herself an age when she would tell people she was a lesbian – that age would be 35…. She said: ‘So that’s why I have decided to come out now, because I made a decision when I was very ill about coming out when I turned 35….

One of the best messages was from Katherine Welby and her father Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who Vicky knows very well. She said: ‘Katherine told me told me that the whole family have said that I am just as welcome at their dinner table and they still love me. I’m actually going round there for dinner next week.’ …

[CT]: Beeching “still considers herself an evangelical,” writes veteran British religion reporter Ruth Gledhill after interviewing the singer, “although she no longer attends charismatic evangelical services and now prefers the more traditional services of London’s main cathedrals.”

“I am not angry with the Church, even though it has been very difficult,” she told Gledhill. “The Church is still my family. Family do not always agree or see eye to eye. But family stick together, and I am committed to being part of the Church, working for change.”

Insert obligatory moaning of the devolution of English here: The end is nigh. Weep for the demise of the English language and the fast-approaching Armageddon of American communication. Pale riders include hashtags and emoji.

The 100-foot-high, oval-shaped citadel of Erbil towers high above the northern Mesopotamian plain, within sight of the Zagros Mountains that lead to the Iranian plateau. The massive mound, with its vertiginous man-made slope, built up by its inhabitants over at least the last 6,000 years, is the heart of what may be the world’s oldest continuously occupied settlement. At various times over its long history, the city has been a pilgrimage site dedicated to a great goddess, a prosperous trading center, a town on the frontier of several empires, and a rebel stronghold.

Yet despite its place as one of the ancient Near East’s most significant cities, Erbil’s past has been largely hidden. A dense concentration of nineteenth- and twentieth-century houses stands atop the mound, and these have long prevented archaeologists from exploring the city’s older layers. As a consequence, almost everything known about the metropolis—called Arbela in antiquity—has been cobbled together from a handful of ancient texts and artifacts unearthed at other sites. “We know Arbela existed, but without excavating the site, all else is a hypothesis,” says University of Cambridge archaeologist John MacGinnis.

(CNN) – For the first time in history, a woman has received the highest honor in mathematics, often nicknamed the Nobel Prize of mathematics.

Since it was established in 1936, the Fields Medal had gone only to men, until Wednesday, when Maryam Mirzakhani received it in Seoul, South Korea, from the International Mathematical Union.

“This is a great honor. I will be happy if it encourages young female scientists and mathematicians,” Mirzakhani said, according to a statement from Stanford University, where she is a professor.

For those of us less versed in the uppermost echelons of mathematics and geometry than Mirzakhani, it’s mind-twisting to understand the abstract accomplishments that got her field’s highest recognition.

Mirzakhani has delved into the depths of geometry, helping bring unexpected order to an area that many of her colleagues considered chaotic and hardly tamable. And her peers have found this very exciting.

The answers Bert Vogelstein needed and feared were in the blood sample.

Vogelstein is among the most highly cited scientists in the world. He was described, in the 1980s, as having broken into “the cockpit of cancer” after he and coworkers at Johns Hopkins University showed for the first time exactly how a series of DNA mutations, adding up silently over decades, turn cells cancerous. Damaged DNA, he helped prove, is the cause of cancer.

Now imagine you could see these mutations—see cancer itself—in a vial of blood. Nearly every type of cancer sheds DNA into the bloodstream, and Vogelstein’s laboratory at Johns ­Hopkins has developed a technique, called a “liquid biopsy,” that can find the telltale genetic material.

The technology is made possible by instruments that speedily sequence DNA in a blood sample so researchers can spot tumor DNA even when it’s present in trace amounts. The ­Hopkins scientists, working alongside doctors who treat patients in Baltimore’s largest oncology center, have now studied blood from more than a thousand people. They say liquid biopsies can find cancer long before symptoms of the disease arise.

Craig Allert asks the question: Is evangelicalism tied to the historical critical method so much that a historical referentiality is the only way it can read the Bible?

I want to ask a question of this approach—Is that all? HC [historical critical method] is important for biblical interpretation. What appears to be happening, however, is the elevation of this approach by some Evangelicals as almost an end in itself—that seeking the original context is the end which we Christians seek in our Bible reading and study of Genesis. Much of the literature to which I refer does a fine job of ushering the reader into the world of Genesis. But is that why we Christians consider Genesis Holy Scripture?

Evangelical writers Johnny Miller and John Soden illustrate what I mean in their book In the Beginning…We Misunderstood.[6] The authors argue that the most important question the interpreter of Genesis asks is “What did Genesis mean to the original author and hearers?”[7] This is equated with the meaning God intended and it is only after interpreters gain this understanding that they can move on to other, more modern, concerns. This is “genuine biblical faith.”[8] Even though the Bible is God’s Word, the authors insist that God’s Word was not given directly to us. God did intend to speak to us through it, but “our understanding of God’s revelation must be understood through the original written and historical context. It cannot mean something different from what it meant to the original audience.”[9] The method endorsed here is one which the authors believe anyone can pursue.[10]…

If this really is the correct method for biblical interpretation, it seems to me that the Apostle Paul should be taken to task for how he interpreted the Old Testament. His applications of some of the Psalms, for example, really do not take the original context or hearers into account at all. He allowed later revelation (the incarnation of Christ!) to cloud his interpretation of the Old Testament texts he used. Further, the first interpreters of the Bible, the Church Fathers, followed Paul in his Christological interpretation.

In the future, sensors placed in a temporary tattoo – or even inside your underwear – could use your sweat to power small electronic devices. The tiny, cheap biobatteries can harvest enough power to power wristwatches and LED lights. Future designs could make bulky batteries on wearable devices a thing of the past.

Researchers at the University of California San Diego reported on their biobatteries at a recent meeting of the American Chemical Society. “Usually with wearable devices, you require a big battery,” Joseph Wang, distinguished professor of nanoengineering and head of the research team said. But these tiny temporary tattoos present an alternative.

People are often surprised to discover that two of the largest Christian kingdoms in the medieval world were in Sudan in northeast Africa. Ibn Selim Al-Aswani, an Arab traveller, visited Sudan in the 10th century AD and described the region north of Old Dongola, capital of the medieval kingdom of Makuria, situated roughly 750 kilometres upstream of Aswan Egypt, as an area of ‘about thirty villages, with beautiful buildings, churches and monasteries, many palm-trees, vines, gardens, cultivated fields and broad pastures on which one can see camels’.

Further to the south, Soba East, capital of the medieval kingdom of Alwa, located near modern-day Khartoum, was said to have ‘fine buildings and large monasteries, churches rich with gold and gardens’. This conjures up quite a romantic picture of medieval Sudan and provides us with an insight into the world in which the Sudanese female mummy, now in the exhibition Ancient lives, new discoveries, had lived. Was medieval Sudan as idyllic as it sounds?

Metta World Peace is taking his talents to China this season, and he’s commemorating the move by adopting yet another new name: Panda Friend. No, we’re serious. China Daily reported Thursday that the artist formerly known as Ron Artest will take on the new moniker in conjunction with his leap from the NBA to the Chinese Basketball Association. World Peace hasn’t confirmed the new name, but he tweeted earlier this week that change is in store.

Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than fifty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.

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The real Mary was an unwed, pregnant teenage girl in first century Palestine. She was a woman of courage, humility, spirit, and resolve, and her response to the angel Gabriel shifted the tectonic plates of history.

Join popular Biblical scholar Scot McKnight as he explores the contours of Maryâ€™s life, from the moment she learned of God's plan for the Messiah, to the culmination of Christ's ministry on earth. McKnight dismantles the myths and also challenges our prejudices. He introduces us to a woman who is a model for faith, and who points us to her son.

What is the 'Christian life' all about? Studying the Bible, attending church, cultivating a prayer life, witnessing to others---those are all good. But is that really what Jesus has in mind? The answer, says Scot McKnight in One.Life, lies in Jesus' words, 'Follow me.'

What does it look like to follow Jesus, and how will doing so change the way we live our life---our love.life, our justice.life, our peace.life, our community.life, our sex.life---everything about our life.

This book examines conversion stories as told by people who have actually undergone a conversion experience, including experiences of apostasy. The stories reveal that there is not just one "conversion story." Scot McKnight and Hauna Ondrey show that "conversion theory" helps explain why some people walk away from one religion, often to another, very different religion. The book confirms the usefulness--particularly for pastors, rabbis, and priests, and university and college teachers--of applying conversion theory to specific groups.

Parakeets make delightful pets. We cage them or clip their wings to keep them where we want them. Scot McKnight contends that many, conservatives and liberals alike, attempt the same thing with the Bible. We all try to tame it.

McKnight's The Blue Parakeet has emerged at the perfect time to cool the flames of a world on fire with contention and controversy. It calls Christians to a way to read the Bible that leads beyond old debates and denominational battles. It calls Christians to stop taming the Bible and to let it speak anew for a new generation.

The gravity point of a life before God is that his followers are to love God and to love others with everything they've got. Scot McKnight now works out the "Jesus Creed" for high school and college students, seeking to show how it makes sense, giving shape to the moral lives of young adults. The Jesus Creed for Students is practical, filled with stories, and backed up and checked by youth pastors Chris Folmsbee and Syler Thomas.

"When an expert in the law asked Jesus for the greatest commandment, Jesus responded with the Shema, the ancient Jewish creed that commands Israel to love God with heart, soul, mind, and strength. But the next part of Jesus' answer would change the course of history.

Jesus amended the Shema, giving his followers a new creed for life: to love God with heart, soul, mind, and strength, but also to love others as themselves. Discover how the Jesus Creed of love for God and others can transform your life.

"Scot McKnight stirs the treasures of our Lord's life in an engaging fashion. He did so with The Jesus Creed, and does so again with 40 Days Living the Jesus Creed. Make sure this new guide for living is on your shelf." --Max Lucado

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. And...love your neighbor as yourself."

Scot McKnight has come to call this vital teaching of our Lord the Jesus Creed. He recites it throughout the day every day and challenges you to do the same. You may find that, if you do, you will learn to love God more creatively and passionately, and find new ways to love those around you.

What was spiritual formation like during the time of Jesus? As Scot McKnight points out, the early Christians didn't sing in the choir or go to weekly Bible studies, and yet they matured inwardly in relationship with God as well as outwardly in their relationships with each other. How did this happen?

In The Jesus Creed DVD, explore with Scot how the great Shema of the Old Testament was transformed by our Lord into the focal point for spiritual maturity. According to the Jesus Creed (found in Mark 12:29-31), loving God and loving others are the greatest commandments.

Is the practice of faith centered solely on the spirit? Is the body an enemy, or can it actually play a role in our pursuit of God? In this installation of the Ancient Practices Series, Dr. Scot McKnight reconnects the spiritual and the physical through the discipline of fasting.

The act of fasting, he says, should not be focused on results or used as a manipulative tool. It is a practice to be used in response to sacred moments, just as it has in the lives of God's people throughout history. McKnight gives us scriptural accounts of fasting, along with practical wisdom on benefits and pitfalls, when we should fast, and what happens to our bodies as a result.

McKnight discusses the value of the church's atonement metaphors, asserting that the theory of atonement fundamentally shapes the life of the Christian and of the church. This book, the first volume in the Living Theology series, contends that while Christ calls humanity into community that reflects God's love, that community then has the responsibility to offer God's love to others through such missional practices of justice and fellowship.

Scot McKnight, best-selling author of The Jesus Creed, invites readers to get closer to the heart of Jesus' message by discovering the ancient rhythms of daily prayer at the heart of the early church. "This is the old path of praying as Jesus prayed," McKnight explains, "and in that path, we learn to pray along with the entire Church and not just by ourselves as individuals."

Praying with the Church is written for all Christians who desire to know more about the ancient devotional traditions of the Christian faith, and to become involved in their renaissance today.

In the candid and lucid style that has made McKnight's The Jesus Creed so appealing to thousands of pastors, lay leaders, and everyday people who are searching for a more authentic faith, he encourages all Christians to recognize the simple, yet potentially transforming truth of the gospel message: God seeks to restore us to wholeness not only to make us better individuals, but to form a community of Jesus, a society in which humans strive to be in union with God and in communion with others.